Engaging the Adaptive Subject: Learning Evolution Beyond the Cell Walls
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NOTES FROM THE FIELD
Engaging the Adaptive Subject: Learning Evolution Beyond the Cell Walls Ramsey Affifi1 Received: 2 August 2019 / Accepted: 2 February 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract According to the modern synthesis (MS), evolution is the gradual change of gene frequencies in a population. The MS is closely allied to adaptationist explanations of phenotypes, where organismic form and behavior is treated as previously selected for and owes its genesis to some remote past. However, some new theories of evolution broadly aligned with the extended evolutionary synthesis (EES), in particular developmental plasticity theory and niche construction theory, foreground the fact that evolution is sometimes much more rapid than previously imagined, and occurs through the active engagement of organisms accommodating and modifying their environments. This article describes how these contemporary theories reveal two interconnected sides of being an adaptive subject, a situated agent that modifies itself and its environment as it lives, and contributes to evolution in turn. MS and adaptationism have a generic logical structure that can be taught anywhere, but because developmental plasticity theory and niche construction theory point to an ontology that foregrounds the agency of the organism, they benefit from in situ exploration. I argue biology as a subject needs to adapt, and call for the renewed importance of field studies, outlining some elements of how such studies might be conceived. I close by considering how understanding organisms as adaptive subjects of evolution has important implications for sustainability education. Keywords Biological agency · Developmental plasticity theory · Niche construction theory · Outdoor learning · Sustainability education
Introduction Millions of biology students have been taught the view (from population genetics) that "evolution is change in gene frequencies." …This view forces the explanation toward mathematics and abstract descriptions of genes, and away from butterflies and zebras ….The evolution of form is the main drama of life’s story, both as found in the fossil record and in the diversity of living species. So, let’s teach that story. (Carroll 2005, p. 294)
This is one of a series of occasional accounts of educational and other initiatives bridging philosophy of biology and the broader society that we will be publishing in Biological Theory. * Ramsey Affifi [email protected] 1
Institute for Education, Teaching and Leadership, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
The standard version of evolution Carroll describes is known as the modern synthesis (MS). The MS emerged as a powerful conceptual integration of Mendelian inheritance and Darwinian natural selection, via statistical reasoning provided by population genetics (Mayr and Provine 1981). The theory depended on a mechanism for inheritance, for novelty, and for spread. Mendelian genetics was identified as the mode of inheritance needed to ensure Darwinian descent with modification, randomly mutated genes
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